After Elizabeth’s death in January, her parents, Jason Struhs, 50, and Kerrie Struhs, 47, were charged with murder, torture and failure to provide the necessities of life. They face life in prison on the murder charge. They have not applied yet. On Tuesday, after a six-month investigation, police charged 12 more people, all members of a small, island religious group, with murder. Authorities said those people, ranging in age from 19 to 65, were with Elizabeth before her death but did not seek help as her condition worsened. Subscribe to The Morning newsletter from The New York Times The 12 people as well as Elizabeth’s parents were “present during the six days she was ill”, Queensland Police Detective Acting Inspector Garry Watts said on Wednesday. “They were actively involved in this commitment and did not provide any medical assistance that the child needed during those six days.” Police said they believe Elizabeth died on January 7 at her family’s home, but emergency medical personnel were not contacted until the afternoon of the following day. Footage released by police shows officers storming a home in Toowoomba early Tuesday and arresting 12 people inside. Elizabeth’s 24-year-old sister, Jayde Struhs, spoke out against her parents’ religious group. The oldest of eight children, Jayde Struhs said she left home to distance herself from her parents and the group at age 16 when she realized she was a lesbian. The group did not celebrate Christmas, believed members’ sole purpose was to serve God and did not accept medical intervention, he said. The story continues “No outside help, no medicine, no Panadol, no doctors, dentists, nothing,” she said in an interview. “It was all ‘God will heal.’ He added that the group said it had no name and simply stated that it was “the people of God or Jesus”. She described her sister as a “really bright little 8-year-old” who loved pranks and said she was diabetic and needed insulin. Police have not clarified the untreated condition that led to Elizabeth’s death. Members of her extended family were “devastated and devastated” to learn of the death, Jayde Struhs wrote in a GoFundMe she started after Elizabeth’s death to raise money to support her other siblings. “We have faced the brutal reality that the people who should have protected her did not, and we may never know the full extent of what happened,” he wrote. Charging 14 people with murder in the death of a single child was highly unusual, Watts said. “I certainly haven’t seen that in almost 40 years of policing.” © 2022 The New York Times Company
